Gliederung

Introduction: Only few investigations on the prevalence of HPV-DNA in cholesteatomas have hitherto been reported. The data in literature is conflicting. Chao et al. revealed HPV-DNA in 1/32 cholesteatomas of the middle ear. Bergmann et al. detected HPV-DNA in 32% of cholesteatomas.

Material and methods: A two-step PCR was carried out to perform a broad-spectrum-assay and to increase the sensitivity. The primers were able to amplify a conserved region in the open reading frame L1.

Results: 28 cholesteatomas (18 middle ear, 10 meatal) of 28 patients (10 female/18 male) were investigated. Only one nested-PCR was slightly positive. Sequencing is still in progress and results are not available until now.

Conclusion: The detection of HPV in cholesteatomas is still no proof for their causal role in the development of cholesteatomas. As in our study even the prevalence of HPV in cholesteatomas was very low their causal relationship with the development of cholesteatomas seems to be very doubtful.